Natchez Burning: A Novel

Raised in the historic southern splendor of Natchez, Mississippi, Penn Cage learned all he knows of honor and duty from his father, Dr. Tom Cage. But now the beloved family doctor has been accused of murdering Viola Turner, the African-American nurse with whom he worked in the dark days of the 1960s. Penn is determined to save his father, but Tom, stubbornly invoking doctor-patient privilege, refuses to even speak in his own defense.

Reliquary: Pendergast, Book 2

Hidden deep beneath Manhattan lies a warren of tunnels, sewers, and galleries, mostly forgotten by those who walk the streets above. There lies the ultimate secret of the Museum Beast. When two grotesquely deformed skeletons are found deep in the mud off the Manhattan shoreline, museum curator Margo Green is called in to aid the investigation.

Would you try another book from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child and/or Dick Hill?

This book was so over the top, so far fetched, so awful, that I doubt I will read another in this series for a very long time.

What didn’t you like about Dick Hill’s performance?

Nasally; unpleasant. Really, really hated the way he intones "thoughts", sounds like he's underwater or talking through a tin can. Just awful. Whoever produced and directed probably deserves the blame more than the narrator.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Reliquary?

The entire book.

Any additional comments?

I have always been a huge fan of the series, and I can put up with a bit of fantasy, but this was absolutely ludicrous.

The 9th Girl

On a frigid New Year’s Eve in Minneapolis, a young woman’s brutalized body falls from the trunk of a car into the path of oncoming traffic. Questions as to whether she was alive or dead when she hit the icy pavement result in her macabre nickname, Zombie Doe. Unidentified and unidentifiable, she is the ninth nameless female victim of the year, and homicide detectives Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska are charged with the task of not only finding out who Zombie Doe is but who in her life hated her enough to destroy her. Was it personal? Or could it just have been a crime of opportunity?

The book was incredibly boring, especially in the beginning. Long, lengthy descriptions, "pages and pages" that did not advance the plot at all. Might have worked better reading as a book so I could skip pages - hard to do with a "book on tape".

Any additional comments?

I almost bailed on this book numerous times. Ultimately the last quarter of the book was pretty good.

The Target: FBI Thriller #3

Hoping to escape unwanted celebrity in the aftermath of a notorious incident, Ramsey Hunt settles in the Rockies, determined to bury himself in the safety of a solitary existence. But his isolation is shattered when he stumbles upon a small girl unconscious in the high-altitude forest. When strangers pursue Ramsey to his private meadow in an attempt to kill him and the girl, he's mystified that anyone would wish her harm.

Last to Die: A Rizzoli and Isles Novel, Book 10

For the second time in his short life, Teddy Clock has survived a massacre. Two years ago, he barely escaped when his entire family was slaughtered. Now, at 14, in a hideous echo of the past, Teddy is the lone survivor of his foster family’s mass murder. Orphaned once more, the traumatized teenager has nowhere to turn - until the Boston PD puts Detective Jane Rizzoli on the case. Determined to protect this young man, Jane discovers that what seemed like a coincidence is one part of a killer’s mission.

The Hostage: A Presidential Agent Novel

Charley Castillo works with the Department of Homeland Security, but more and more is the man to whom the President turns when he needs an investigation done discreetly. And no situation demands discretion more than the one before them now. An American diplomat's wife is kidnapped in Argentina, and her husband is murdered before her eyes.

As soon as I started listening, I realized this was the second book in a series - the CONSTANT references to the first book - which I had not read - were really, really annoying.

I got over that. What else was really annoying? The story did not resolve. I won't say more because I don't want to be a spoiler, but that really is a problem for me.

Lastly - and just as annoying - while it may have worked in a "book", this did not work in an audible book. The last chapter - should have been all action - about 10 minutes of one of the characters preparing a meal (how he made the sauce, temperature of the beef).

Zero Day

From David Baldacci - the modern master of the thriller and number-one worldwide best-selling novelist - comes a new hero: a lone Army Special Agent taking on the toughest crimes facing the nation. John Puller is a combat veteran and the best military investigator in the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigative Division. His father was an Army fighting legend, and his brother is serving a life sentence for treason in a federal military prison. Puller has an indomitable spirit and an unstoppable drive to find the truth.

I have always loved David Baldacci, and really looked forward to this book.

It was a huge disappointment.

The story line was not remotely believable (and I am usually pretty easy going on this score). The characters were not believable. I didn't like the quasi dramatization (the occasional use of sound, eg gunfire). Worst of all was the preachy tone - anti mining, anti smoking. I do understand that surface mining = bad environmentally, but I don't need to be preached about it when I'm "reading" a book for pleasure. And the smoking lectures were a real turn off to this non-smoker who hates smoking.

I'm down to the last few chapters, and honestly, I don't care how it turns out or if he gets the "bad guys". I may not finish it, and this after devoting 10 painful hours already.

The Danger

Dick Francis is the author of dozens of best-selling mysteries set at the racetrack, involving jockeys, horses, and the glamorous world of horseracing. The most delightful aspect of his stories is that one need know nothing about horses and racing to enjoy them thoroughly.

The Ice Limit

The largest known meteorite has been discovered, entombed in the earth for millions of years on a frigid, desolate island off the southern tip of Chile. At four thousand tons, this treasure seems impossible to move. New York billionaire Palmer Lloyd is determined to have this incredible find for his new museum. Stocking a cargo ship with the finest scientists and engineers, he builds a flawless expedition. But from the first approach to the meteorite, people begin to die....

I'm a big Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child fan, as well as a fan of Scott Bricker, but I found the plot line totally unbelievable - and unlike some other unbelievable plot lines of this Duo, I couldn't suspend my disbelief. I almost abandoned the story numerous times.

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